GlobalFoundries to invest $2 billion in new Malta research and development facility

By CAITLIN MORRIS

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

MALTA -- GlobalFoundries announced plans Tuesday afternoon to build a new global research and development facility at its Fab 8 campus in Malta.

At the new Technology Development Center, "innovative semiconductor solutions allowing customers to compete at the leading edge of technology" will be devised, according to the company.

The new center will cost the company $2 billion to build and is projected to create an additional 1,000 jobs by the end of 2014, bringing the firm's total to 3,000 in the region.

The new investment brings the total capital investment for the Fab 8 campus to more than $8 billion. GlobalFoundries received Malta Planning Board's approval of the plans in October.

"This is a huge investment again in our community," Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce President Todd Shimkus said. "The jobs they're going to create are going to help stimulate an even more progressive economy. We're talking about people who are going to be earning great wages. People tend to spend money where they live, and that's going to have an exponential impact on the economy."

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement, "This significant expansion demonstrates that the investments we have made in nanotechnology research across New York state are producing the intended return -- the creation of high-paying jobs and generation of economic growth that is essential to rebuilding our state. New York has become the world's hub for advanced semiconductor research, and now the Technology Development Center will further help ensure the innovations developed in New York, in collaboration with our research institutions, are manufactured in New York."

"I think it's a good addition to the chip fab plant that's already there, and hopefully it's going to be an incentive for continued growth in the tech park," Malta Councilman Peter Klotz said. "We would like to see other businesses enter the park and continue what started with GlobalFoundries."

The 500,000-square-foot manufacturing facility will feature a cleanroom and laboratory space. GlobalFoundries says the center will primarily provide a collaborative space to develop solutions in the silicon technology spectrum.

"As the industry shifts from the PC era to a market focused on mobile devices, we have seen increasingly strong interest from customers in migrating to advanced nodes on an accelerated schedule," GlobalFoundries CEO Ajit Manocha said.

"It's really amazing to me the role that the governor and his team have played in making sure that this happened, as well as our county leaders. What a great public-private partnership this has turned out to be," Shimkus said.